Title
A MOTION relating to the King County policy for the provision of animal services; establishing the policy and requesting the county executive to take actions necessary to implement the policy.
Body
WHEREAS, for the last two and one-half years, King County has worked diligently to find the best way to provide high-quality, humane care and control services for animals, including high adoption rates and low euthanasia rates, and
WHEREAS, an advisory committee was reconstituted and presented a report, two consultant studies were completed and approximately one million dollars in supplemental funding for animal shelter staffing, equipment and supplies was provided in 2008, and
WHEREAS, the King County general fund has historically supported animal shelter and control services for certain cities through discretionary contracts for services at a cost of approximately two million dollars per year, and
WHEREAS, King County is facing an ongoing financial crisis and does not have a sufficient, stable source of revenue to continue to manage and maintain the animal services at a level which would result in King County providing a model program, and
WHEREAS, King County has performed a diligent evaluation and analysis of alternative ways to provide humane animal shelter services for the county and cities that contract with the county for shelter services, and King County has determined that successful alternative models are available and warrant further exploration, evaluation and potential implementation, and
WHEREAS, in 2003, the budget advisory task force made a number of recommendations regarding county finances including a policy that King County should be "Ensuring that discretionary service contracts provide full cost recovery to the county including overhead, operation and capital costs," and
WHEREAS, on October 13, 2003, the King County council approved Motion 11820 establishing the policy that all county discretionary contracts shall be full-co...
Click here for full text